


Accidental Shootdown

by StarWarsSyl



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Attachment does not equal love in this fic, By Author- Anakin Never Gets It Of Course, Canon Compliant, Clone Wars Gambit by Karen Miller, Fusion of Star Wars Legends and Disney Canon, Gen, Jedi Culture Respected, Protective Anakin Skywalker, Ship Crash, Worried Anakin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 04:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11706924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarWarsSyl/pseuds/StarWarsSyl
Summary: The day Anakin's tinkering with droids and ships resulted in a rather significant Obi-Wan injury, and all of Obi-Wan's grumbles about it afterwards. And Anakin panic.





	Accidental Shootdown

**Author's Note:**

> In Karen Miller's EU novel “Stealth,” Obi-Wan mentions an untold story about the time Anakin messed with R2's programming and ended up shooting Obi-Wan out of the sky by accident.
> 
> I needed that story told, so I wrote it, and here it is.

 

Anakin Skywalker tried to muffle his anticipation so Obi-Wan wouldn’t pick up on it.

This was going to be good.

Obi-Wan had already taken off, and Anakin vaulted himself into his own fighter, powering up and closing the cockpit bubble over himself. He almost couldn’t wait to try out R2’s new instant-response upgrades, but his former master definitely didn’t need to know that.

He’d just give Anakin another lecture on the gravity of war.

There were plenty of vultures in atmosphere to satisfy his eagerness to try out his new alterations  _ and  _ keep Obi-Wan and the clones busy too.

_ Alright. Let’s show Obi-Wan how it’s done. _

Wouldn’t he be surprised when he saw Anakin’s kill count soar far beyond his own?

Maybe... just maybe...

_ If  _ Anakin didn’t let on how eager he was for this to work, if he didn’t let his elation at success seem like pride...

Obi-Wan might commend him.

_ May I make you proud, Master. _

His fighter screamed upwards and he triggered the new systems, already picking out the first vulture to be pulverized.

 

* * *

 

Obi-Wan targeted an enemy fighter and fired, the vulture exploding in a fiery ball of shrapnel. He rolled his ship to avoid the largest chunk hurtling towards him and turned his attention to the next attacker.

He never sensed the ill-intent, the malice, because they didn’t exist.

The tiniest flicker in the Force warned  _ danger— _

And then his ship was exploding around him.

 

* * *

 

A cry of pain, of shock tore through the comm.

Anakin couldn’t believe his senses.

His shot had struck Obi-Wan.

Hard.

Utter panic seized him as Obi-Wan’s fighter— what was left of it— fell from the sky.

He could sense his former master, hovering between life and death, close to unconsciousness, helpless as he hurtled groundwards. Injured.

Anakin threw his ship into a dive so sudden and steep the fighter creaked and groaned around him. He only had a split second before Obi-Wan impacted, he had to—

There was no time to think, to act, to feel anything except overwhelming, consuming fear—

He tried to grab Obi-Wan’s fighter with the Force, slow its decent—

It crashed through the roof of a building, falling out of sight.

Anakin dropped his ship to land with a harsh jolt on the street in front of the building. Scrambling out of the cockpit, he Force-leaped to the roof and looked down the hole, terrified of what he would find.

The crumpled fighter smoldered at the bottom, and Anakin knew at any moment what was left of it might explode.

He jumped down, landing on top of the cracked cockpit. He couldn’t sense Obi-Wan.

At all.

In a panic, he used the Force to rip open the canopy and found his master, bloody and limp, twisted in the wreckage.

His fear of the coming explosion outweighed his fear of hurting Obi-Wan further. He reached in and hauled him out, pulling the unconscious Jedi over his shoulder, and then Force-leaped to the roof again, and from there to the street.

As his feet hit the cobblestones, the ship exploded, a wave of heat striking him as a large portion of the building collapsed in on itself.

He shifted Obi-Wan from his shoulder to the ground, where his best friend lay sprawled on his back, eyes closed, terrifyingly still.

“Kix!” Anakin barked into his comlink. “I need you here.  _ Now _ !”

“I’m already on my way, General,” the Clone’s voice called back. “I saw him go down. What is General Kenobi’s condition?”

Anakin struggled to find enough calm to be able to discover the answer.

_ He’s not breathing. Is he breathing? I can’t sense him— _

He dragged his thick leather glove from his still-living hand and pressed shaking fingers under Obi-Wan’s jaw.

“He’s losing blood, but I’ve got a pulse.” He saw a slight shift of Obi-Wan’s garments. “And he appears to be breathing.”

“Try to stop the bleeding. I’ll be there in moments.”  
“Hurry, Kix.”

Anakin reached out, hesitant to touch the blood-soaked tunic, afraid of what he might feel—

And then he placed his hand against Obi-Wan’s chest. Something shifted beneath his palm.

Anakin’s gut heaved, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from throwing up.

“I’m sorry,” Anakin pleaded, his eyes stinging with smoke and now unshed tears. “I don’t know what happened, Obi-Wan—”

“Sir!”

Anakin looked up, saw Kix heading their way at a dead run.

The medic dropped to a knee beside the unconscious Jedi and grimaced as he got to work.

Cutting open the burned, torn, and now-crimson tunic down the front and along both arms, he quickly ascertained the cause of the blood.

A gash across his chest, and a shard of durasteel stabbed deep into Obi-Wan’s gut.

Kix sprayed something that smelled familiar across the chest wound, and Anakin struggled against the knowledge that the medic wasn’t using pressure to help stop the bleeding because of the broken ribs.

_ Pressure might drive the jagged edges into lung. Oh, Master... _

Three hypo injections later, Kix gave a nod. “Minor burns along his face, arms and chest, with a fairly severe burn across his right forearm. It melted through the plastoid. I think he threw his arm up to protect his face. At least two broken ribs— badly— a broken arm, right again, a compound fracture in the forearm, simple fracture in the upper. The gash, which I think is from the instrument panel as it broke apart, and this.” He pointed to the durasteel, slick with blood. “I need to get him back to the ship. If I remove the shrapnel now, he might bleed out.”

“Is he—” It’s as far as he got. He couldn’t bear to finish the question.

“General Kenobi is tough, Sir. He’s been through worse.”

That might be the case...

But it didn’t have to take much to kill a man. Even a Jedi. Even  _ this  _ man,  _ this  _ Jedi.

Obi-Wan’s singed and bloodied eyelashes quivered as he dragged in a labored breath, deeper than those before. They flew open in shock as the breath glitched. Obi-Wan’s wide, pain-filled eyes roved helplessly, then tried to focus on Anakin’s face as he panted for air.

“Master.” Anakin leaned over him, not caring to try to hide his worry.

“What— happened?”

“I upgraded R2,” Anakin blurted in a rush. “Instant weapons reaction. I was going for the vulture, but something went wrong. I hit you instead.”

Obi-Wan stared up at him for a long moment, his face blank of anything but pain and confusion. Then understanding touched his eyes.

“You shot me.” There was no emotion, no inflection to the words.

“It was an accident— it shouldn’t have happened— I was so careful with—”

“Sweet Force, Anakin.” Still emotionless, still without inflection.

“I don’t know how it could have gone so wrong!” He took a step back as clones lifted Obi-Wan onto a hover stretcher and started pushing it to the closest gunship for transport.

_It wasn’t supposed to go this way._

He was  _ good  _ with machines. Better than good. He knew droids, and he knew his fighter. How could this have happened? When he went to work with wires and circuitry, he  _ knew  _ he could rely on what he’d done. He  _ knew  _ he could trust his alterations. He  _ knew. _

_I miscalculated._

Somehow, he’d miscalculated, and Obi-Wan had nearly died. Might still die.  _ No. No, I won’t let him. _   
“It would appear your upgrades worked.” Obi-Wan coughed an exhale, and his whole body jerked. “I just wish you could have tried it out on someone other than  _ me—  _ the  _ enemy,  _ perhaps—” His voice broke off in a muffled cry of pain as he tried to take too deep a breath.

“General, lie still,” Kix ordered. “You’ve taken some serious damage.”

“Again?” Obi-Wan groused. “I don’t have  _ time  _ for this.”

“Sir,” Rex’s voice came over Anakin’s comlink, “the Seppies are on the run. How’s General Kenobi?”

Anakin looked at Kix.

The other shook his head. “I don’t think his life’s in danger. At least, not if we get him to a bacta tank soon. And if you can convince one of those healers of yours to work on him, I’d say his chances are even better.”

“I don’t believe it’s quite as serious as—”

Anakin glared at Obi-Wan. “That’s because you’re full of pain meds.”  
“I am? Blast.” Now _ Obi-Wan _ scowled. “How many times do I have to tell them not to  _ do  _ that?”  
“I’m sorry, General, but it’s an order I can’t follow unless you’re awake to give it.” Kix most certainly did  _ not  _ sound sorry.

“I don’t suppose the tunic is salvageable.”

Anakin felt relief and continued worry dueling, scrabbling for supremacy within himself in a nauseating tournament. “You’re worried about  _ that _ ?”

“It’ll be the eighth one I’ve had to make since Geonosis.  _ Two months,  _ Anakin.”

Anakin sent him a fond, exasperated look. “I’m sure Bant or somebody will help. Now please shut up, Obi-Wan. Talking can’t be good for you right now.”

“Nonsense. All the fuss is—” Obi-Wan struggled to sit up, but the attempt failed and Anakin caught his shoulders before his head crashed to the stretcher again. For a moment he struggled against mind-obliterating pain, his eyes glassy, his breathing shallow and harsh. “I... don’t feel so well.”

Kix was busy on his comlink arranging for medbay to receive Obi-Wan, so Anakin kept one hand pressed firmly on Obi-Wan’s shoulder to try to keep him from doing anything else stupid, while he commed Cody, still on the bridge of the Negotiator.

“Commander. Skywalker here. General Kenobi’s been injured. Please send a medevac to my coordinates.”  _ I don’t think he can handle the gunship. We need something safer. _

“It’s already on its way. I saw what happened, General, but beyond that I confess to being baffled. What  _ was  _ that?”  
“Anakin shot me,” Obi-Wan mumbled.

Anakin glared at him. “Some malfunction. I’ll figure it out once Obi-Wan’s safely in bacta.”  
“Do I need to be concerned about the rest of the fighters?”

“No,” Anakin snapped. “It was an isolated problem. I said I’ll figure it out once I have the chance.”

“Rude, Anakin,” Obi-Wan chided, his voice rapidly weakening. “It’s not like  _ he  _ shot me down...”

Anakin felt his heart twist, and  _ not  _ out of guilt for his loss of temper. “You’re going to cooperate with the medics this time, Obi-Wan. I won’t stand for anything less.”

“I have negotiations to finish.” But pain was drifting across Obi-Wan’s face, slipping through the fog the drugs tried to spread over the agony. “Work to be done.”

“ _ I  _ will finish negotiation,” Anakin said, and was so thankful, so  _ relieved  _ Obi-Wan was alive and most likely going to be alright that he didn’t even feel dread at the thought.

He would negotiate any day if it meant Obi-Wan didn’t die.

Anakin couldn’t lose him.  _ Couldn’t _ lose him.

Obi-Wan was too close to going under to protest the new arrangement.

 

* * *

 

Anakin checked on Obi-Wan as soon as his negotiating was complete. He’d done all right with the talking, but he’d been unable to keep his mind completely on the talk.

Obi-Wan was completely out of it and immersed in a bacta tank.

For a long moment Anakin stood there, staring at the wounds torn into his friend.

_ I did that. _

He reached out and placed his metal palm against the tank and sent a tiny pulse in the Force to his former Master. 

_Obi-Wan._

The older man’s head bobbed, his eyelids slowly cracking open. For a moment recognition lit the blue eyes, and then they drifted shut until he once again hung limp in the bacta.

_I’m so sorry._

“Sir, I am pleased to report that General Kenobi should make a full recovery.”

Anakin nearly jumped. Spinning around, he saw the medical droid looking at him expectantly.

“You’re sure?”  
“Ninety-seven percent sure, General Skywalker.”  
Anakin experienced an odd mixture of relief and new worry. _ “Very sure”  _ would have been reassuring.  _ Now  _ all he could see was that three percent of possibility.

_ I just need to keep busy. _

Giving the droid only a nod, he hastened from the room and to the hangar where his fighter was waiting.

R2 saw him coming and rolled to meet him, chittering his own worry.

“The medic says he’s going to be fine,” Anakin said, trying to banish the cold, hard knot in his gut. “What  _ happened,  _ R2?”

The astromech reached him and tilted back so his optical sensor could study Anakin’s face.

As he explained, Anakin felt himself growing hot, then cold, then hot again.

The fighter’s weapons systems had been upgraded. All of the fighters had.

He’d tweaked R2 to be more accurate and fast with the  _ old  _ settings...

_ His upgrades and the fighter’s weapons systems didn’t match. _

That had to be how he’d hit Obi-Wan instead of the vulture he’d targeted.

Yes. It was definitely the heat of fury that was boiling within him now. He hadn’t been  _ notified. _ They’d messed with  _ his fighter,  _ and he hadn’t been told. His  _ men’s. _

_ And because of it Obi-Wan nearly... _

_I nearly lost him._

He was going to fix this right now, and then he was going to go find the technician, officer, or  _ whoever  _ was responsible for this, and see to it he  _ understood.  _

“Have you determined what we need to—” but R2 was already explaining.

Anakin felt a distinct sense of pride.

The little atromech wasn’t just smart. He had initiative.

He’d figured out just  _ exactly  _ what needed to happen in order to make his upgrades communicate without misinterpretation with the Aethersprite’s.

And  _ this  _ time Anakin was going to try it out  _ before  _ Obi-Wan was nearby.

This wasn’t going to happen again.

_I swear it._

 

* * *

 

He took it out of those responsible.

Fleet Maintenance

They understood now just how...  _ displeased _ ... he could become when left out of the loop. 

They also understood they were lucky Obi-Wan  _ hadn’t _ died, and was going to make a full recovery.

They’d been more than willing to promise they would never fail to notify him again.

_You’d better not._

His fighter and R2 were in sync again. He’d spent an hour just outside the planet’s gravity well targeting debris left over from the battle, both he and R2 checking everything in every way possible they could think of.

After that, he’d located the remains of Obi-Wan’s fighter, which had been hauled out of the house and brought on board the Jedi Cruiser, and tried to determine what he could salvage.

Not much.

As he fished around in the charred wires and circuits, he changed his conclusion.

Not anything.

Obi-Wan was going to need a new fighter.

Anakin turned his attention to R4, who was not functioning at all at the moment, and looked just as beyond repair as the fighter.

He was no R2, but he  _ had  _ saved Obi-Wan’s life more than once...

Anakin carefully took him apart to the smallest components, and starting from there, rebuilt him. R2 spent half of his time watching, the other half helping, for the most part silent.

Somehow he knew Anakin didn’t need conversation right now. He needed focus. Quiet.

Intensity.

His tension and fear were finally starting to drain away.

He knew what had happened.

It wasn’t going to happen again.

He could move on now, he didn’t have to be afraid.

By the time R4 was fully functional again, the day was long over. Anakin rose to his feet and realized he was tired.

The morning’s battle seemed very far away.

He worked his path back to medbay and found Obi-Wan sitting on one of the repulsor beds while the medical droid ran a few more tests on him.

“—Really necessary?” he heard his Master grousing as he came close enough to discern words.

Anakin had to smile to himself.

Bored and anxious to get going again.

_ And he tells me  _ I  _ need patience. _

Obi-Wan pushed himself hard. Always did. Almost as if he felt that if he wasn’t  _ doing  _ something he was wasting precious air and space in the universe.

And spending time healing himself didn’t seem to count as doing something.

“Hey,” Anakin said, leaning against the doorjamb. “How’s the patient?”  
“Prisoner,” Obi-Wan corrected. “Maybe he’ll listen to  _ you.  _ I have  _ work  _ to—”

“I took care of it.”

Obi-Wan raised his eyebrows skeptically. “You did.”  
Anakin spread his hands wide in feigned injury. “Is that so shocking? You couldn’t, so I  _ did.  _ I watch your back, Obi-Wan.”

“Except for when you’re busy  _ shooting  _ it.”

“That was Fleet Maintenance’s fault. They upgraded my fighter and didn’t tell me.”

Obi-Wan frowned. “The upgrades were faulty?”

“No, but  _ their  _ upgrades of the weapons systems didn’t  _ work  _ with  _ my  _ upgrades of R2. So R2’s modifications weren’t actually the problem. Don’t worry. It won’t happen again.”

“I’d feel a  _ lot less  _ worry if it hadn’t happened at  _ all, _ ” Obi-Wan groaned, looking exasperated.

Anakin shrugged, trying to affect a nonchalance he didn’t feel. “Yeah, well... like I said. Wasn’t my fault.”

Obi-Wan fixed him with a stern glance. “That makes me feel so much better.”

“You’re not going to let me live this down, are you?” Anakin sighed. “This is going to end up being like the time I lost my lightsaber.”

As soon as he’d said it, he wished he hadn’t.

Obi-Wan’s face went very still.

Anakin’s own gut did a flip.

The first time he’d lost it, back when he was fourteen... one act of carelessness...

And Yaddle was dead.

Nothing could bring her back.

Anakin felt his throat closing up. Obi-Wan had cared about her so much...

_ The reason why he keeps on me about my lightsaber is  _ because  _ she died. _

He didn’t know whether he should try to forget the memory that caused him so much agony and guilt, or whether he should embrace it.  _ I  _ do  _ try now... _

“Yes, well,” Obi-Wan said softly, his eyes proving he was very far from here in time and place. “No deaths, so I don’t suppose this was too much of a—”

The medical droid jabbed him with something sharp, and he yelped. Instantly his tone changed from gentle to indignant. “What’s that for? Aren’t you  _ done  _ yet? You said I could  _ leave _ soon!”

Anakin banished Yaddle’s face from his mind, locking it and the guilt and the pain and the fear deep within his heart, behind impenetrable walls.

“General Kenobi, your condition is severe. I am simply doing my job in making sure you are battle ready again.”

“I’ll  _ never  _ be ready at the rate you’re going.”

“The patient’s health is more important than speed, General Kenobi. I would have thought you, as a Jedi, would understand that.”  
Anakin chuckled to himself, the dark shadows for the moment gone. “Patience, Master.”

Obi-Wan threw him a look. “How much longer do I have to sit here—?”

“I am almost done,” the droid assured.

Obi-Wan huffed out a sigh and eyed Anakin. “My fighter?”

“Scrap,” Anakin admitted. “But I saved R4.”

“Then it’s not a total loss, is it,” Obi-Wan mused, the question mark implied but not inflected. “You’ve not upgraded him, have you?”

Anakin rolled his eyes. “No.” He turned to the medic droid. “You’d better let him go fast, or this is just going to get worse.”  
“What this?” it replied, continuing its efforts.

Anakin only shook his head.

As far as he could tell, Obi-Wan was only minorly tweaked at the moment with him for shooting him down. That, of course, could change later...

He’d know it had if Obi-Wan’s passive aggression grew.

At the moment it was simply something he would mutter about once in a while.

Anakin could live with that.

Since Obi-Wan was alive, he could _ definitely  _ live with that. 

 

 


End file.
